ABBA star Björn Ulvaeus made headlines in the UK over an offhand comment about the Boston bombing. Courtesy BBC

Bjorn Ulvaeus appeared on British TV on Tuesday and made a bad taste joke about the Boston Marathon bombing. Source: Supplied

ABBA star Björn Ulvaeus has apologised for making an offhand comment about the Boston Marathon blasts on a breakfast news program on Tuesday.

The 67-year-old singer made headlines in the UK with his reply to a question about how he keeps in such good shape during an interview with BBC One Breakfast.

"Well, I don't know, running is good - unless you're in the Boston Marathon," he said, before quickly adding "Which is terrible".

The two hosts responded to the gaffe by quickly agreeing that the bombings were "so difficult for everyone to deal with" and then hastily changed the subject, with co-host Charlie Stayt asking about the ABBA legend's new Eurovision song.

Ulvaeus apologised for the poor taste comment later that day:

"This morning on BBC Breakfast I let my tongue slip with terrible results," the seventies superstar said in a statement.

"I feel very, very bad about it, I am truly sorry and I hope that everybody understands that it was an unbelievably stupid slip of the tongue.

"As everyone else I feel sorrow about what's happened and deep compassion with the victims of this atrocity."

Outraged viewers took to Twitter after the breakfast show aired to share their thoughts on the slip-up.

Björn Ulvaeus, how can you be that stupied and pull a joke about something so terrible? I am cleaning my lists from #abba songs.

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